LG Electronics has lately been trumpeting its plans to debut a 3G wristwatch phone with a touch screen technology at the Consumer Electronics show in January.
The LG-GD910 watch phone is expected to first be punted in Europe next year, although an exact release date has yet to be determined.
LG's upcoming handset wristset will …

COMMENTS

Wristphone takes no time

"While there's no specific mention of it, we'd like to think the wrist watch phone will also tell time. That would be terrifically convenient."

What?! You wouldn't rather wear two horribly uncomfortable braclets? One for time and one for wicked fun Dick Tracy-style fun?! Come now, where's the fun in that?! Plus, now LG can manufacture and sell MATCHING wristwatches, nearly identical in appearance so you forget which is which, thus answering your timepiece when your talkpiece rings. Those Koreans are tricky.

Would you believe it's a watchphone?

It's about time

Finally we get something Dick Tracy had 50+ years ago, but that picture looked more like a Casio wrist calculator from the 80's.

The next question is can I get one without the MP3 playback through a crappy speaker, and probably without the videophone capability since no one is going to stare at their wrist while talking. I guess I'd be wiling to accept Bluetooth, but I really just want a phone that makes phone calls I can hear, without dropping out.

hmm

I hope a lot of the applications for this phone make use of the big red button method of UI; I think if it had more than 4 buttons on that screen I would not be able to press one without pressing at least one other.... at least not with my finger. Perhaps if I get one, I'll have to grow a very carefully manicured fingernail for phone operation.

My wife, who could be the model's twin if she (my wife) were in her teens, would probably have much better luck with this device than I would.

Love / hate

I really don't like mobile phones (aka nag devices) but I have a love of gadget wristwatches - past ones had these add-ons; a plethora of Nintendo/Nelsonic game watches, FM radio, thermometer, thermoscanner (point the watch at something and it'll tell you the temp), laser, talking, calculator, data bank, melody alarm, tv remote, camera etc. etc. - most of these watches are many many years old and were the height of technology at the time, still got most minus their straps which all have the same fate of falling apart.

However when I discovered last week that mobile phone watches are now small(ish) enough, available, affordable and usable - up to 150 mins talktime & up to 150 hours standby, bluetooth, 2mp camera etc. - the geek in me just HAS to own one, probably this one: http://www.haku.co.uk/pics/PhoneWatch.jpg

BTW, importers beware, Chinese phones can have duplicate/fake/no IMEI numbers. Buy one from your own country so you have consumer come-back if anything goes titsup.

@Dave Morris

Several of the phone watches I've seen online have a small telescopic stylus that stows away in the strap to use the touchscreen with, the one I want to get has simple number recognition so you don't have to deal with the tiny buttons below the screen - just draw them one-by-one on the screen, hopefully it'll recognise letters too to make SMS entry a lot easier/quicker.

YouTube has a few videos of these phones in use - that is if you've really got nothing better to do than watch someone demonstrate the functions of a watch phone :D

Alternative designs we should demand

I would use one if it was shaped like something we Brits could appreciate. The commlocks from Moonbase Alpha come to mind, although I might forgo using accelerometers to control something this shape in public.

IIRC they were also coloured like the main part of the uniforms, so I could get out my beige flares. The ones that also match my pre-millenium (still functioning here) PCs.

The one with the white sleeve thank you (although they should have chosen green for us medics)

it comes also with....

Finally a phone that might be useful

Firstly, no big colour display so you've got a chance of a decent battery life.

Second, Bluetooth. You won't be talking at your wrist or listening to MP3 from a crappy speaker, you'll do that with a bluetooth headset. At the worst with wired head phones/set.

Finally if you don't want it on your wrist, it's presumably going to be small enough that you can ditch the strap and pop it in your wallet , hang it round your neck squeeze it into your shoe or whatever else you want. If it has a halfway decent voice dialing / recognition you never even need to see the unit, just say the names/numbers/commands to it over BT as you need. Major data entry (your whole address book) will probably need a PC to dump onto it anyway.

(SMS could be a bit tricky without the unit but I'm sure someone can think of a workaround)

just asking for a HHGTTG quote

As noted by the late, great Douglas Adams:

"Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."

Next, please

Styling people!

Why the fuck do they have to make them look like circa 1980 casios? Really is that the best they can come up with?

The only reason that this idea always falls flat on it's arse is because it doesn't look cool.

The sad fact is if it's made out of smooth, curved and moulded plastic (not necessarily watch shaped maybe more like a large bracelet), market it to teens, make the UI something that doesn't involve the average joe or joe-etta having to use a pencil sharpener on their fingertips in order to press the right button and you MIGHT be onto something.